The Appointment
by Irish Thorn
Summary: Healer Granger is very busy with her new career as an OBGYN at St. Mungo's. She hasn't seen much of the people that she considers friends and family for quite some time now, though. It's when one of her appointments causes everything that she knows to spiral around her that she realizes what she needs to do and who all means the most to her in life.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: It's been quite some time since I've uploaded anything new. I'm so sorry to those who've been waiting, and I'm so grateful for the reviews and PMs I still get regarding something that I wrote so long ago. I hope that this makes it up to you in some way. It's a very slow moving Bill/Hermione story that won't get smutty for awhile. It will be rated M however due to the graphic nature of some of the scenes. If you have a weak stomach, best stay away. Well, enough of the warnings, enjoy!_

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Hermione Granger jolted awake with a gasp, patting down her sheets, her pillow, and herself before releasing a deep sigh of relief. She had had that dream again. The same one that had relentlessly been haunting her every night for the past two months. It starts out in a beautiful garden during a full moon, obviously well loved by whomever it's caretaker may be. She's laying across a stone bench, twirling a daisy between her fingers, humming an old lilting tune that she had only ever heard played on the bagpipes, when all of a sudden fear, the likes of which she's never felt, even during the war, descends upon her. She jumps to her feet and starts running. She runs, and she runs, and she runs. Before she even realizes it, she's at a dead end. She only has two options, face whatever creature is coming after her, or jump down the deep ravine that she's only a meter away from. She always wakes up before she has to make a decision, but that's not the point! The point is that she is sick and tired of waking up every night because of the same dream. It gets old pretty fast.

With another sigh, Hermione decides that there is no way that she's going to able to go back to sleep given it's already four-thirty and she has to get up at six anyways. She opts for a cup of tea before she starts her day, and makes her way down the stairs of her small cottage towards her kitchen. She flips on the light, as she lives with all the muggle conveniences, and proceeds to putter around at the sink with her teakettle, turning on the stove, and depositing the aforementioned teakettle onto the rapidly heating burner. She tosses some black tea leaves in the bottom of a teacup and waits for the whistle to sound.

The hot water didn't take long to heat, and not five minutes later Hermione was sitting at her small kitchen table with a cup of strong tea gripped loosely in her hands. She inhaled a deep whiff of the tea and a smile gently graced her features. The fog left over from her dream lifted and she began thinking about everything that she had to do that day.

It was a Wednesday, her busiest day of the week. She worked at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Milords and Maladies as a Specialist Healer. She worked in the Obstetrics and Gynecology ward that had been added on recently as the hospital now finally had an actual specialist in the field instead of just relying on regular healers all the time. There was a brand new nursery near the main nurses station for the floor so that the babies were always watched, and there were eight new birthing rooms, and twelve new recovery rooms, four of which were private rooms. She was very proud of her own slice of the hospital.

What's so busy about Wednesday? Wednesday was the day that she scheduled all of her office appointments for expecting witches. She met with a lot her patients at some time on Wednesday, even though that meant staying until nine'o'clock, and still bringing home folders to work on throughout the day on Thursday. Her first appointment of the day was scheduled for seven-thirty and they were in half hour increments for the rest of the day, except her hour for lunch. She never saw the same people every Wednesday, having the patients only come once a month unless they were in their last month, in which she would see them weekly.

She truly loved her job, but absolutely hated Wednesday. She had scheduled surgeries throughout the rest of the week, besides Thursdays, and of course she was always on call for the other departments just in case a pregnant woman came through for any other ailment. Thursdays were the day that she caught up on paper work for the week, and had the few gynecology appointments with the older muggle-born witches that were worried about their feminine health. The pure blood and half blood witches knew they had nothing to really fear, as there was always a spell or a potion that could be used to cure any ailment.

Finishing her tea, Hermione glanced at the clock on the microwave and noticed that it was already five after five. She rinsed out her cup and the teapot before walking back upstairs to get ready for her day. She knew that she was getting started super early, but she figured she could go in early and get all of her paperwork ready for the day. It always paid to read up on new patients before she saw them, as she never made her own appointments. She had a personal assistant to do that for her, and Cheryl was very good at her job.

Hermione turned on the shower in her en suite bathroom and slipped off her pajama pants and an old quidditch jersey that used to belong to Harry. She couldn't remember for the life of her when she had acquired the garment, but it was her favorite night shirt. Harry probably didn't even realize that it was gone. He and Pansy had recently moved out of 12 Grimmauld Place, where they had lived together before they got married two months ago, and into a house in Godric's Hollow.

Stepping under the spray of hot water was Hermione's most welcome morning ritual; next to her first cup of tea, that is. She stood under the hot waterfall for ten minutes before she finally went about washing herself. When she was done, she quickly jumped out of the shower, pulled a clean towel from the cupboard nearest the tub, and wrapped herself in it before she walked into her room to get dressed.

She decided on a scarlet blouse with a plunging neckline and a short black skirt; she would have to wear her lab coat over top of her outfit anyways. She used her wand to dry her hair, causing it to fall into beautiful, soft curls as opposed to the frizzy, tight mop of curls that she used to have. She slipped on a pair of red heels that perfectly matched her top, applied a light coat of eyeshadow and some lip gloss before walking back downstairs.

A quick glance at the clock on her microwave showed that it was now five-forty five. Fantastic. She grabbed her white lab coat, double checked her doors were all locked, and stepped into the ever-nauseating floo network. She stepped out into her office and used her wand to remove the soot she had picked up on her way through the many fireplaces of Britain.

When she glanced up she noticed a rather daunting stack of manilla folders in the middle of her desk. _That stack seemed a lot shorter yesterday... _Taking a seat, she began reading the contents of each folder meticulously. The first few women were all in various stages of their second trimester, meaning that she had to run various tests on them each time they came in. She noticed things like that as she made her way through the now dwindling stack of patient files.

It wasn't until she got to her three'o'clock appointment that she finally saw a new patient's name. Her eyes widened in shock before she managed to reign herself in enough to put her professional mask on. She made quick work of the remaining files, making mental notes here and there to herself about each patient. When she had finished, she cast a quick charm to tell her what time it was. It was now seven-o-two. She set all of the folders in a slot on the wall near her door so she could grab each one as the day ticked by. Just as she opened her door to let Cheryl know that she was in, so that she knew for whenever her first patient arrived, the woman in question bustled through the open door.

"Good morning, Healer Granger." The woman always sounded chipper, no matter the time.

"Good morning, Cheryl, and how many times have I asked you to call me Hermione?" Hermione had an amused smile on her face for the taller, plumper witch that she had been working with for the past year.

"Every day, Healer Granger." Both women shared a small chuckle before Cheryl got down to business. "Your one'o'clock canceled, so I moved the meeting you were supposed to have tomorrow morning to noon today. You can just eat at your desk during the meeting and that should free your entire morning up tomorrow so that you can make it to your parents' before your dad's chemo treatment." The larger witch was very efficient in her planning.

"Thank-you so much, Cheryl. You really do way more than I ever expected you to." Hermione made a mental note to get Cheryl a thank-you gift. No matter how many times she did things like that for Hermione, no matter how many times she was told thank-you, it never seemed like enough for all the extra hard work she put in around the department.

"It's no problem at all, Healer Granger. I also took the liberty of calling your parents to inform them that you'll be able to make it. Your mum sounded relieved." Hermione nodded her head to acknowledge that she was listening.

"That's great! Thanks again, Cheryl. Do you happen to know if my seven-thirty is here yet? I can get them in a few minutes early if they're here." Hermione quickly slipped into Healer-mode and grabbed the outer most folder from the slot on the wall.

"I believe I saw them walk in, I'll send them back if they are." With that, Cheryl left. Hermione followed, but went into her small examination room across the hall from her office. She reread the file in her hands once more before the door opened. A young couple walked in, both with brown hair and brown eyes. The woman was obviously pregnant and Hermione gestured for her to take a seat on the examination table in the center of the room.

"Good morning, Joann. How have you been?" The young woman smiled and replied with a generic answer that could have meant she was actually fine, or that she didn't wish to divulge the problems she's been having. "Let's get started then." Hermione smiled and got along with her tests on both the woman lying in front of her, and the fetus in her womb. After about ten minutes she picked up the folder that she had laid on the counter in the corner. She made some scribbles on one of the papers in the folder, closed the folder, stopped for a second, opened the folder again, read what she had written, nodded to herself, added to what she had written, then turned back to the couple. There must have been an odd look on her face, because the man spoke up.

"What is it, Healer Granger?" He reached out to hold his wife's hand like he expected bad news.

"Your baby's heartbeat is really slow. It's not cause for alarm just yet, but you should try to do as little as possible for the next month. If nothing has changed before then, we'll talk about some options you have. If you feel any heavy cramping, or start vaginally bleeding before your next appointment, come in through emergency. I'm always on call and I'll be there. Until then, stay off your feet and try not to consume too much sugar." Hermione smiled reassuringly at the couple before signing off on a small piece of parchment. She handed them the parchment and told them to give it to Cheryl on their way out. She would schedule their next appointment for them; then told them to have a nice day. The couple left, the man with his hand at the small of his wife's back.

Hermione sighed and returned to her office. _One appointment down. _She put the folder face down on her desk, she would forget which folders needed worked on if she didn't. She took a seat, checked the time, and stood right back up. Her next appointment was for eight and it was now three minutes til. She stepped out into the hall, grabbing the next folder on the way. She didn't bother looking up, it was only a few steps across the hall to her destination. Scanning the information in front of her, she slammed right into her eight'o'clock patient.

"Watch it, Granger." That voice could only belong to the illustrious Draco Malfoy. Raising her gaze, Hermione confirmed her own suspicions. She flashed a smile and held her hand up for him to help her off the floor where she was currently sitting. He smirked before pulling her to her feet.

"Hello, Draco, Astoria. How are you both this morning?" She nodded at both in turn, leading them into the examination room.

"Quite well, thank-you. The baby's been very active the past few days." Hermione pointed Astoria to the table as she closed the door behind Draco. She made small talk with the perfectly Aryan couple as she ran the standard tests on the petite witch in front of her. She waved her wand in a quick flourish, emitting a small piece of parchment seemingly from thin air. She grinned as she caught and handed the picture to Astoria. It was a moving picture of their son. He was currently sucking on his thumb and attempting to elbow his way out of his prison. Tears welled up in Astoria's eyes, they finally knew that they were having a little boy. Draco even looked misty-eyed for a minute when he leaned over to see the picture.

"He's perfectly healthy. Whatever you're doing, keep it up, Astoria. You're in perfect health for where you're at in your pregnancy. As of today you have three months left. You are now entering your third trimester and I recommend that you don't do any heavy lifting. If you want to exercise, mild yoga or walking. Do you have any questions?" Hermione was scribbling a quick note that she wanted to see the couple every two weeks from now on.

"Umm... Actually I do, Granger." Malfoy had a blush spreading across his features when Hermione looked up to acknowledge him.

"Go ahead, Draco." She waited expectantly.

"How long until we have to stop- you know?" Even Astoria was blushing at this point. It usually took a lot to phase the couple in front of her. She grinned when she realized what Draco was asking.

"You don't have to stop until she goes into labor. Some women find that it can even help stimulate labor closer to their due dates. You should abstain for the first six weeks after the baby's born, though. That should give Astoria plenty of time to heal." Hermione looked back and forth between the two, silently asking if their was any other questions. When they both shook their heads, she handed Draco the slip of paper as he helped his wife down and out the door.

"Thanks, Granger." Draco called over his shoulder as they headed back down the hall to make their next appointment. Hermione and Draco had become friends in the five years since they've been out of school, even went on a few dates before he married Astoria. Those two were perfect for each other, and neither said anything about her being muggleborn anymore.

Hermione checked the time: eight-twenty. She quickly wrote a few notes on the Malfoy file before slipping it into it's file cabinet. The day was shaping up to be even busier then anticipated... _Stupid Wednesdays..._

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_A/N: Thanks for reading. This will be a rather long story, not sure how long just yet. Please let me know what you thought and if you think it's worth continuing. Have a good day!_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thank-you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. I appreciate all the feedback I've been getting. I'll probably be updating every other week or so. I have the first ten chapters written already and as long as people continue to show interest, I'll continue to write. Thanks again! Enjoy chapter two!_

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It was just before noon when Hermione finally finished with her last appointment before lunch. She caught one of the department nurses on the way into her office and asked if she could bring her some lunch from a muggle deli down the street. The nurse smiled at her, quickly agreeing. Stepping into her office, she decided that she needed to straighten up the files from that morning before her meeting. At least the meeting was being held in here so she wouldn't have to rush off to some obscure portion of the hospital.

A knock sounded at the door, just as Hermione was shoving all of the files into a briefcase that she kept in the corner of her office just to take home on Wednesday nights. She stood and opened the door with a smile on her face. Cheryl led in two middle-aged men and settled them into the two chairs opposite Hermione's desk.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Goode. Healer Adams." Hermione greeted the Head of the hospital's Board of Chairmen and the Chief of Medicine for St. Mungo's, shaking their hands in turn. "I trust you're both doing well today?" The two distinguished men nodded their heads together regally, looking very much the epitome of royalty that they both fancied themselves.

"Healer Granger, how are things in your department?" Healer Adams, easily eighty years old and very short, had to be the only Healer at the hospital that called all of the other healers by their professional names.

"Very well, Healer Adams. Is there anything specific that you'd like to know about?" None of the other Healers really understood Hermione's profession. Most of them were the equivalent to muggle Emergency Department doctors: general knowledge of everything, specialized knowledge on absolutely nothing.

"Have you thought about training any other healers to assist you?" He was also the only healer in the hospital to answer every question with another question.

"It's crossed my mind; but I'm doing very well on my own, and there isn't any reason to train someone else when there aren't all that many pregnant women in the wizarding world." Hermione was very possessive of her position in the hospital, but she had been telling the truth when she said that there weren't that many pregnant witches. At her last patient count, she only had about seventy appointments a month, and most of those were repeats at least once, sometimes up to four times for the women in their last month, that was less than twenty appointments a week.

"You never know, Healer Granger, something might happen to you and then where would you be?" Mr. Goode, a really fat man in his late seventies, was clearly the most pessimistic man in existence. He thrived on depression.

"Well, Mr. Goode, I can see what you're getting at, but I have no reason to ever miss work; and if something did come up, I'm sure my patients would be fine with regular healers temporarily, like the pregnant women of our world have always done up until three months ago when I started working here." Hermione really tried to be patient with the two men before her, but it was really a losing battle.

"Healer Granger, surely you could step down off your high horse and train a few interns? Even another healer would benefit from a year or two under your training." She would gleefully stick her wand up this man's-hm mmm- nose. Mr. Goode was a right bastard who knew nothing about medicine, but loved to show up to departmental meetings and pretend like he was contributing, even though the most helpful thing he's ever said during a meeting started with the phrase: 'I'll be right back...'

"Well, Mr. Goode, if it's all the same to you, I'm just going to pass; but thank-you so much for showing up today to help me with my decision." Mr. Goode had no idea how sarcastic she was being and visibly preened at the 'praise'.

"Certainly, Healer Granger. It was my pleasure to stop by and help in any way I can." The man's jowels positively quivered in delight- yuck.

"Is there anything further the two of you wish to address?" She knew that this meeting wasn't over by a long shot, especially since her lunch hadn't even arrived yet.

"More to address? Of course, Healer Granger, we've barely begun." Healer Adams looked taken aback by Hermione's insinuation that what they were doing wasn't in any way important.

"We're also here to talk about your departments' budget. The department itself was really expensive, we had to really dig into the coffers just to finish it, and now we are severely under-funded as a hospital. We've had to turn away several people that couldn't pay for their accommodations in the past week alone. St. Mungo's has never turned away anybody. We need you to help replace the money that you've cost us." Mr. Goode only ever knew what was going on if money was involved. Hermione was rendered speechless for the first time since she accidentally ate one of the Weasley twins' 'special brownies' and glued her mouth shut for three days. If she wasn't a healer she wouldn't have even found a way to keep herself hydrated in that time.

"Anything you can think of? It would be wonderful. You have until Friday to come up with something." Healer Adams was looking rather smug at this point. However, Hermione knew that the hospital wouldn't fire her. Especially not after all of the money they had apparently spent on her.

"Well, Healer Adams, I can think of a few things actually. I'll write them down and have them delivered to your office by five'o'clock on Friday." Hermione was smiling to herself as she thought of what she wanted to do, she had this in the bag.

"Actually, I'm not sure if that'll work for me? You see, I won't be in this Friday; so I'll need you to go ahead and have those ideas to me by tomorrow." She wanted to hex the smug look right off of the man's face; no, on second thought, hexing would be to good for the old man, she wanted to punch him right in the nose.

"That should be fine, sir. I'll have a list to you by tomorrow then." Hermione was hoping they would hear the clear dismissal in her voice, when there was another knock on her office door. She excused herself quickly and stood to answer it. The nurse that had agreed to get her lunch for her was standing there holding a brown paper bag with the logo for her favorite deli on it. "Carmen, you are amazing! Thank-you so much!" She ducked back into her office without waiting for a response, and proceeded to lay out her lunch on her desk in front of the men. Her earlier dismissal of them apparently didn't mean anything to either of them as they just settled themselves in for more conversation.

"Healer Granger, there is also the problem that you haven't made in any appearances to hospital functions." Mr. Goode once again showed his true colors.

"I've only worked here for three months, sir." Let's see the old codger dispute that.

"Yes, and you've already missed the annual ball and the semi-annual family day." Mr. Goode really must not know the role she played in the defeat of Lord Voldemort. If he did, he might be a little scared of addressing her like a child.

"I don't have a family, hence the reason why I didn't show up for face painting and other games that I outgrew when I was eight; and the last time I checked, the annual ball was optional. When I was hired in, the only mandatory things that I was told to go to was the annual ministry ball and the quarterly seminars for all of the healers that are head of departments. " Hermione was seething quietly behind her turkey club wrap.

"Yes, well, I believe that was changed when we got the bill for the new facility? Now your presence will be required at all hospital functions. That is, of course, unless you decide to train someone else?" Healer Adams' questions would be the death of her. With a sigh, she finally resigned.

"Fine, fine. But I get to pick my own trainee. And I'll train them however I see fit." Hermione knew that it was the best she could hope for; if they agreed.

"Done. I believe that's all?" Mr. Goode was already standing up, clearly done, having made his point.

"What about the hospital functions?" Hermione really didn't want to go to family day twice a year and be reminded of what she didn't have, or to the Cancer Days celebration. Yes, cancer was very treatable in the wizarding world, just very very expensive.

"Let's see what you do about your new intern and then we'll talk again." Mr. Goode opened the door and the two men walked through.

"Oh, and Granger?" Obviously Healer Adams.

"Yes, sir?" No sense annoying the man further.

"You will still deliver that list to my office by tomorrow evening?" Would anyone miss the man if he mysteriously went missing?

"Of course, sir." With a satisfied nod, the men finally left her alone. She released a relieved sigh and finished up her lunch. Carmen had brought in chips and iced tea with her wrap. It was delicious. She threw away the garbage before checking the time: one-fifteen. Still a few minutes before her one-thirty appointment was supposed to be there, she decided to give Harry Potter a call. She really hadn't talked to her surrogate brother in almost a month. They were both so busy now a days, with her being the only healer in her field, and him being the head of the Auror department at the Ministry of Magic.

She tossed a handful of floo powder into her private fireplace, and yelled out 'Harry Potter's office, Ministry of Magic'. She put her head in the now green flames and greeted the dark-haired man sitting at the desk in the office. Harry's face lit up when he saw who had called him.

"Hey, there, Miss Healer. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Harry came around his desk to kneel by the fire. Hermione laughed at the greeting.

"I just got done with a lunch meeting and decided to check up on you." Hermione's grin hadn't left her face since her head had first appeared in Harry's fireplace.

"Pansy and I miss having you around, Hermione. You should stop over sometime soon." Harry was referring to Pansy Parkinson, his wife of two months now. Hermione hadn't actually seen the woman since their wedding.

"Of course! I miss her too. We have the best girl talk. We'll probably have a lot more time for that girl talk in the near future." Harry could immediately pick up Hermione's mood change; she was annoyed.

"I'll be sure to tell her. Now, what happened at your meeting?" Being an auror meant that Harry had amazing instincts, and his instincts were telling him that something big had happened at her meeting.

"Oh, just Adams again. This time he's on me about getting an intern. He wants a back-up healer in the department in case something goes wrong or I get hurt or something." Hermione was still royally pissed about the level of confidence the man had in her.

"Well, Hermione. He has a point. You've been running yourself into the ground since you took that job. You need a break from the workload." Harry knew he was on thin ice, and this was only made more obvious by Hermione's next statement.

"What are you trying to say, Harry? That I can't do my job? Or maybe that there's no way that I actually enjoy what I do?" Hermione was very illogical when anyone threatened her new position at the hospital; she had worked harder than anyone to do what she did. She had taken apprenticeships all over the wizarding world, and even one in a muggle hospital, to get where she was. It had taken over four years of hard work, and no one would ever tell her she couldn't do her job!

"Hermione! You're only twenty-three. Don't give yourself a stress-induced heart attack." Harry was trying to stay light-hearted but needed to get his point across.

"I know." Hermione admitted with a sigh of defeat. "I just worked so hard for this position, and now that over-paid, over-stuffed mongoose is trying to take it away!"

"Everything will work out, Hermione, it always does." Harry slipped into the big brother role perfectly.

"You're right, Harry. I'll see about training a new healer. I'm going to try to get someone already at the hospital that hasn't had any specialist training yet; not that most healers ever do." Hermione took a deep breath before offering Harry a gentle smile. "Thanks for the chat, Harry. I'll try to be over soon to see Pansy."

"No problem, Hermione. I'll see you soon." With that, Hermione slid her head out of the fire and stood to brush her lab coat free of soot. Her time check said that she was now two minutes late to her one-thirty appointment. She made sure she had her wand, grabbed the patient's file, and ducked out of her office and into the examination room with a smile plastered on her face.

"Good afternoon, Christina. How are you feeling today?" Hermione's day was, once again, back to dragging it's way to nine'o'clock, when she would finally be free of this place.

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_A/N: Please review! Now we are starting to see some of the characters that we all know and love, let me know what you think!_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: This is the first chapter that we get to see Bill! Yay! I hope you enjoy this, and I have run into a bit of a problem with this story. I've written the first thirteen chapters, so we're okay for awhile, but chapter thirteen seems so forced. I hate that feeling. If anyone is interested in being my beta, please contact me via PM or in a review. To be honest, my grammar is pretty damn good without help, I really just need someone willing to read through what I've written so far and give me feedback. Please, let me know. I hate to resort to begging, but I just might! Now, enjoy the next chapter of '_The Appointment_'._

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It was nearing three'o'clock when Hermione pulled out another patient file. She scanned the folder again, trying to stifle the surprise she felt every time she thought about the upcoming appointment. It was surprising that she was finding out about something so important in such a generic way. This was someone that she was fairly close to, she just couldn't get her head around how strange it was to be seeing them professionally.

Standing up, she checked the time to see that it was three'o'clock exactly. She walked swiftly across the hall and knocked on the door, not even waiting for an answer before she let herself in. The couple in the room looked rather surprised to see her as well, even though it should have been common knowledge whom their healer would be, as she was the only one with a specialty in this field. A man with long red hair, striking blue eyes, and a fang earring in his ear, stood next to a petite, green-eyed woman with platinum blond hair and a distinctly 'Veela' air about her. It was Bill and Fleur Weasley that had been waiting for her.

"Good afternoon, Bill. Fleur." She gave each one a hug in greeting before stepping back and pointing Fleur towards the examination table. "Go ahead and sit at the end of the table, I just have a few questions I need to ask, as it's your first appointment with me."

"Oui! Of course!" Fleur sat where Hermione had indicated and Bill stood right beside his wife, holding her hand.

"How did you know you were pregnant?" Hermione started her line of questioning.

"I used ze potion, and ze vial turned blue." Fleur was referring to a method of pregnancy test devised by Hermione herself in her final year of training. Anyone wanting to be a specialist in any field has to do a final project; hers just happened to result in a fully marketable potion in which a woman would drink the contents of a vial, say a certain spell, and the vial itself would turn an opaque shade of either blue for pregnant, or pink for not pregnant. It was completely magic in nature, and could only be explained to someone with extensive knowledge in arithmancy. She currently held all rights on the potion, and only allowed one person to brew it.

"Alright. When was your last menstrual cycle?"

"Ze end of May." It was now nearing the end of July; Hermione made a quick note of Fleur's answer.

"Have you had any nausea in that time?"

"Non."

"Have you had any spotting or light vaginal bleeding since then?"

"Non."

"Have you had any abdominal pains?"

"Oui. A very leetle beet. Mostly eet ees just uncomfortable."

"Okay. Just a few more questions. Have you taken any potions for the pain?"

"Non, I just deal weeth eet."

"That's good, some potions react negatively toward the fetus. Have you done anything strenuous? Such as heavy lifting, or even flying on a broomstick?"

"Non." Hermione was asking because she had seen many women lose their babies just by doing the simplest of things. She also knew that Bill and Fleur had had a horrible time trying to conceive, and it would appear that they were both bursting at the seams with excitement.

"One more question, this one is for Bill, have you told your family yet?" Obviously this wasn't in the normal line of questioning, but Hermione was curious as to why she was just finding out about this now.

"No, we didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, like ours have been several times in the past." Bill didn't stop smiling through his explanation, they were both just waiting for Hermione's assessment that Fleur was, in fact, pregnant.

"I was just wondering why this was the first that I'm hearing of your news." Hermione was smiling at the couple. She had secretly always had a thing for Bill, he was one of the only other people that she could really talk to; most everyone else just took what she said at face value and never wanted to debate with her, or offer their own opinions. "I promise not to say anything though, that was in the agreement that Cheryl had you sign out front before you came back here."

"Thank-you so much, Hermione. Is there anything else that you need to do, or can we go tell everyone the good news?" Bill asked, still looking excited.

"Actually, I have a few more tests I need to run on Fleur. One will determine her due date, and the rest will assess the health of the baby." Hermione took out her wand and stepped up next to Fleur. She rolled the older woman's shirt up to just under her breasts, before waving her wand in some complex patterns against the skin of Fleur's abdomen. She must have been nodding, because the young couple looked even happier, and Bill gripped his wife's hand tighter in his.

Hermione quickly turned around and scribbled a bunch of information into the patient file she had brought in with her. She chewed on her thumbnail for a moment in thought before turning back to the couple. Throughout her examination of the fetus, she hadn't smiled once, and she still wasn't smiling now. If anything, she looked positively grave.

"Umm... I'd like to run a few more tests on you if I could, Fleur." She didn't want to alarm the couple, but her tests were showing some concerning things.

"What ees wrong, 'Ermione?" Fleur and Bill both could see how upset their healer was; no one ever wanted to see their healer look like that after examining them.

"I'm not sure yet, but it could be nothing. I just want to run a few tests to be sure." Hermione had about three different scenarios running through her head as to what could be wrong; none of the scenarios would be good, and two would be life-threatening for Fleur. "I'll be right back. Don't leave yet." Hermione dashed out into the hallway, and through to her office.

She began pulling notebooks off of the bookshelf behind her desk. The notebooks were her own personal notes of anything she found important while studying obstetrics and gynecology. She opened the one that was full of abnormal test results during the first trimester. She flipped through until she found 'Abdominal Pain'. Fleur had said that it wasn't extreme pain, but that didn't necessarily mean that it wasn't, a lot of women that went through what Bill and Fleur did to conceive talked down their pains, not wanting anything to be wrong. The same three things that she had thought could be wrong, showed up in her quick search. She released a sigh and went back over into the room where she had left the young couple.

"I looked through some notes and decided that I'm going to run two separate tests, but they must be done on different days. I'll do one now, but you'll need to come back for the other. The problem is, if one of the two tests come back positive, you may not have a week in between to wait. If you'd like, I can see you in your own home on Saturday, that way, if the tests are both negative, you can tell your family; but we'll talk about your options at the time if one of them is positive. Do either of you have any questions?"

"How long until we get the results of the first test?" Bill was always practical.

"If you're willing to wait, I can have them for you after I see my next patient." Hermione had tapped her wand against the wall near the door, causing a supply cupboard to slide out in front of her.

"We weel wait." Fleur now looked terrified about what could possibly go wrong.

Hermione pulled out a metal instrument and cleaned it before setting it off to the side. Next, she pulled out a vial, and a pair of gloves. She waved her wand again, this time causing stirrups to be emitted from the end of the table that Fleur was still laying on.

"Put your feet in the stirrups, I'm going to vanish your shorts and underpants. Then I'm going to make a quick scrape of your vaginal walls with this, and put the culture in this." She held up the metal instrument and the vial in turn. "After I do that, I have one more test that I'm going to run before I let you back out to the waiting room."

When both Bill and Fleur nodded at her, she got to work. Once she had the culture she needed, she labeled it and sent it to her lab at the far end of the hallway from the waiting room and gave Fleur back the clothes she had taken. With a small, forced smile, Hermione waved her wand around and caused an image of Fleur's uterus to be projected onto the wall behind her. She didn't see a fetus, or even an amniotic sac.

Hermione was quickly growing confused. It was possible that Fleur's body was mimicking the symptoms of pregnancy because she wanted a baby so badly. She had seen it happen before with women, but their test results would come back normal, while Fleur's weren't. Maybe she needed to read up on Veela and get back to the couple at another time. First she would run the tests that she had already told them she would before getting too freaked out.

Offering another smile, this one less forced, Hermione allowed them to leave, reminding them to sit out in the waiting room until she came out to talk to them. The couple still looked nervous, but they did as they were told with no complaints. Depending on what she found in that vial, she may run another pregnancy test on the woman, though the test she invented had never made a mistake before; but what if the person who made it, the only one she trusted to brew potions for her, had made some sort of mistake? She would just have to see first.

She checked the time, noticed she was running behind, and went back to the lab anyways. If it was someone that she didn't know, she would wait until the end of the day to check the culture, but this was a couple that she had always idolized. She had wanted what they had, only she had wanted it with Ron. At least until Ron decided that he only wanted her to be a stay at home housewife. She dropped him faster than she had dropped Divination her third year in school.

After running her tests, she had come up with a diagnosis. She managed to blunder her way through her next appointment, thankfully the couple was in their last month of the pregnancy and Hermione could do her regular spells quickly and efficiently before sending them out, and calling Bill and Fleur back in. She conjured a couple chairs and asked them both to have a seat.

"I finished running all of the tests on the sample I took." The couple was looking at her expectantly, clearing waiting for any sign of good news. "And I have some bad news."

"What ees eet? Ees there anyzing you can do?" Fleur looked about ready to break down at any time.

"Well, you are pregnant, but it's what we call an ectopic pregnancy." Hermione took a deep breath before continuing. "Normally, a fetus grows in the uterus. Your baby is lodged in your fallopian tube. This means that if we allow the fetus to grow normally, it won't be long until it kills you. We need to preform surgery and get it out of you."

"Non! You can not keel eet! Eet ees our bebe!" Fleur was openly sobbing and Bill was gently patting her back, clearly in shock.

"Is there anything else you can do? Maybe transplant the baby into her uterus? Anything?" Bill was grasping at straws, not willing to kill the baby they had wanted for so long.

"I'm sorry. There isn't anything else I can do. I'm going to do some research on Veela this weekend. If I can find another way, I will. I promise to do the best I can for you." Hermione was trying to force back her own tears at this point. She hated telling women that the baby that was a part of them had to be taken from them. It made it so much harder that she knew the people in front of her.

"Thank-you for everything, Hermione. If anyone can help us, it's you." Bill was sincere in what he said. He had always held respect for the young woman in front of him. It always surprised him that she was nearly nine years younger than him and yet held the intelligence of a man Albus Dumbledore's age: easily two-hundred years old.

"I'll be in contact if I find anything of use. I'll have your surgery scheduled for first thing Monday morning, if I don't tell you otherwise, you need to be here for that. Do you have any questions?" Hermione tried to smile reassuringly.

"Non. Zank you, 'Ermione." Fleur stood up and kissed Hermione once on each cheek before turning back to her husband of seven years and taking his hand in hers. The two left Hermione alone in the examination room, already in the research mindset. She was running through a list of books that she needed to buy on her way home that night. She was going to figure out this puzzle, she always loved a good puzzle.

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_A/N: Please read the author's note at the beginning if you haven't already. As always, please review. It's what keeps author's going._


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